Why Boys Fail

This book takes a hard look at how this ominous reality came to be, how it has worsened in recent years, and why attempts to resolve it often devolve into finger-pointing and polarizing politics. The signs and statistics are undeniable: boys are falling behind in school. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the biggest culprits are not video games, pop culture, or female-dominated schools biased toward girls. The real problem is that boys have been thrust into a bewildering new school environment that demands high-level reading and writing skills long before they can handle them. In Why Boys Fail, you will understand this misunderstood problem and uncover schools that are getting it right by boosting literacy among the entire student body, using: data,interviews,case studies,and clearheaded analysis Amidst the alarming proof of failure among boys, there are also inspiring case studies of schools where something is going right. Each has come up with realistic ways to make sure that every student-male and female-has the tools to succeed in school and later in life. Educators and parents alike will take heart in these promising developments and heed the book's call to action, not only to demand solutions but also to help create them for their own students and children.

There is a significant problem in our schools: too many boys are struggling. The list of things to concern teachers is long. Disappointing academic results, a lack of interest in studying, higher exclusion rates, increasing mental health issues, sexist attitudes, an inability to express emotions.... Traditional ideas about masculinity are having a negative impact, not only on males, but females too. In this ground-breaking book, Matt Pinkett and Mark Roberts argue that schools must rethink their efforts to get boys back on track. Boys Don’t Try? examines the research around key topics such as anxiety and achievement, behaviour and bullying, schoolwork and self-esteem. It encourages the reader to reflect on how they define masculinity and consider what we want for boys in our schools. Offering practical quick wins, as well as long-term strategies to help boys become happier and achieve greater academic success, the book: offers ways to avoid problematic behaviour by boys and tips to help teachers address poor behaviour when it happens highlights key areas of pastoral care that need to be recognised by schools exposes how popular approaches to "engaging" boys are actually misguided and damaging details how issues like disadvantage, relationships, violence, peer pressure, and pornography affect boys’ perceptions of masculinity and how teachers can challenge these. With an easy-to-navigate three-part structure for each chapter, setting out the stories, key research, and practical solutions, this is essential reading for all classroom teachers and school leaders who are keen to ensure male students enjoy the same success as girls.

The book is one of a kind that speaks to the heart of the issues that face schools around the country - the plight of black boys. The author provides the reader with a clear view on why black boys fail in public schools. After reading the book, teachers, parents and the students are encouraged to know that with support, direction and encouragement black boys have the God- given potential to reach success. This book is unique because was designed to be in the student's hand in the classroom. This book can be used as a current textbook that provides insight to them about their struggle. So often teachers study the concerns of the students they serve, but there are few times when the student and teacher can study the issues together and later come up with possible solutions. This book offers such opportunities for the teacher and the student.

What is the boy crisis? It's a crisis of education. Worldwide, boys are 50 percent less likely than girls to meet basic proficiency in reading, math, and science. It's a crisis of mental health. ADHD is on the rise. And as boys become young men, their suicide rates go from equal to girls to six times that of young women. It's a crisis of fathering. Boys are growing up with less-involved fathers and are more likely to drop out of school, drink, do drugs, become delinquent, and end up in prison. It's a crisis of purpose. Boys' old sense of purpose—being a warrior, a leader, or a sole breadwinner—are fading. Many bright boys are experiencing a "purpose void," feeling alienated, withdrawn, and addicted to immediate gratification. So, what is The Boy Crisis? A comprehensive blueprint for what parents, teachers, and policymakers can do to help our sons become happier, healthier men, and fathers and leaders worthy of our respect.

When Marita Golden decided to write her personal account of the challenges of raising a black son in today's world, she didn't intend to write more than her own faily's story. But through the story of raising her son against the backdrop of a racially divided society, Golden discovered she was also confronted the causes of the violence that surrounds African-American men. In the fierecely lryical and revealing narrative of Saving Our Sons, she has created a work of profound and lasting importance−one that sensitively and uniquely addresses the problems of boyhood and emerging manhood. It is a book that issues a clarion call: The survival of our cities, if not our society, depends on our finding a way to save our sons.

Blending interviews with those most closely affected together with views from key commentators and experts the author creates a vivid picture of a system and societal failure ... a failure both that is at once both embarrassing and avoidable.

From the moment they step into the classroom, boys begin to struggle. They get expelled from preschool nearly five times more often than girls; in elementary school, they’re diagnosed with learning disorders four times as often. By eighth grade huge numbers are reading below basic level. And by high school, they’re heavily outnumbered in AP classes and, save for the realm of athletics, show indifference to most extra­curricular activities. Perhaps most alarmingly, boys now account for less than 43 percent of those enrolled in college, and the gap widens every semester! The imbalance in higher education isn’t just a “boy problem,” though. Boys’ decreasing college attendance is bad news for girls, too, because ad­missions officers seeking balanced student bodies pass over girls in favor of boys. The growing gender imbalance in education portends massive shifts for the next generation: how much they make and whom they marry. Interviewing hundreds of parents, kids, teachers, and experts, award-winning journalist Peg Tyre drills below the eye-catching statistics to examine how the educational system is failing our sons. She explores the convergence of culprits, from the emphasis on high-stress academics in preschool and kindergarten, when most boys just can’t tolerate sitting still, to the outright banning of recess, from the demands of No Child Left Behind, with its rigid emphasis on test-taking, to the boy-unfriendly modern curriculum with its focus on writing about “feelings” and its purging of “high-action” reading material, from the rise of video gaming and schools’ unease with technology to the lack of male teachers as role models. But this passionate, clearheaded book isn’t an exercise in finger-pointing. Tyre, the mother of two sons, offers notes from the front lines—the testimony of teachers and other school officials who are trying new techniques to motivate boys to learn again, one classroom at a time. The Trouble with Boys gives parents, educators, and anyone concerned about the state of education a manifesto for change—one we must undertake right away lest school be-come, for millions of boys, unalterably a “girl thing.”